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20th century novelists

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Poll Question: Choose your favourite(s)
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
3 [2.24%]
9 [6.72%]
5 [3.73%]
5 [3.73%]
3 [2.24%]
6 [4.48%]
1 [0.75%]
11 [8.21%]
9 [6.72%]
2 [1.49%]
1 [0.75%]
7 [5.22%]
14 [10.45%]
9 [6.72%]
7 [5.22%]
1 [0.75%]
2 [1.49%]
5 [3.73%]
1 [0.75%]
11 [8.21%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [1.49%]
1 [0.75%]
3 [2.24%]
16 [11.94%]
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SteveG View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 13 2018 at 08:06
I can't vote. No Nikos Kazantzakis!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BaldFriede Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 13 2018 at 09:41
My personal favourite of Lovecraft is "At the Mountains of Madness". Hardly anything happens in this novel but the atmosphere is absolutely creepy.

Edited by BaldFriede - October 13 2018 at 09:43


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The.Crimson.King Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 13 2018 at 14:37
Voted Vonnegut...besides his other great works, Breakfast of Champions is a masterpiece.  Lovecraft is my all time favorite writer, 20th century or not.  His first story I read was At the Mountains of Madness and by the end of the first paragraph I knew I was home Wink

My band Mutiny in Jonestown (added to the PA database last year) has adapted many Lovecraft stories to music.  If anyone is curious, check out my latest album, "The Daemons Mock Me While I Sleep".  It sets Dagon, Polaris, The Colour Out of Space, Despair & Astrophobos to music and is available for listening (lyrics included) and free download at Bandcamp:

https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/album/the-daemons-mock-me-while-i-sleep
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LAM-SGC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 14:00
Knut Hamsun, every day of the week. I read four of his in the 80s: Mysteries (1892), Hunger (1890), Pan (1894), Victoria (1898) - and I read them in that order. Mysteries is my favourite. 

There is a Swedish film of Hunger from the 60s. It is very good. The dialogue is in Swedish and Norwegian with English subtitles.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 14:26
Out of the list, I voted for Vonnegut, I've read many of these authors' works, however.  I have even read the novelty novel, A Void  (a novel written entirely without the letter E [with the exception of the author's name, of course, note how many E's there!], but I read it in the English translation, can you imagine translating that?) by Georges Perec, surprised to see his name here.  I read a wide variety of fiction....For horror, yes to Lovecraft and also his contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Raff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 14:41
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Out of the list, I voted for Vonnegut, I've read many of these authors' works, however.  I have even read the novelty novel, A Void  (a novel written entirely without the letter E [with the exception of the author's name, of course, note how many E's there!], but I read it in the English translation, can you imagine translating that?) by Georges Perec, surprised to see his name here.  I read a wide variety of fiction....For horror, yes to Lovecraft and also his contemporary, Clark Ashton Smith.  


ThisClap. Smith is really something else. Most of the authors Lovecraft mentioned in his essay Supernatural Horror in LIterature are also highly recommended - even though many of them wrote mostly short stories. I  think JRR Tolkien also deserves a mention, no matter how overexposed his work may be. The Lord of the Rings will always be one of my favourite novels of all time, bar none.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 14:54
Originally posted by Raff Raff wrote:


ThisClap. Smith is really something else. Most of the authors Lovecraft mentioned in his essay Supernatural Horror in LIterature are also highly recommended - even though many of them wrote mostly short stories. I  think JRR Tolkien also deserves a mention, no matter how overexposed his work may be. The Lord of the Rings will always be one of my favourite novels of all time, bar none.

Me, too.  Read the Tolkien's trilogy many, many times in my life.  Not all that is good is kept a secret.

I have a beautiful book of poetry of Smith's, Ebony and Crystal, signed by the author (not to me, sadly).  He was born and spent most of his life in Auburn, in Central CA, and I found it in an antique store there.


Edited by Snicolette - January 28 2019 at 14:59
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 14:57
Originally posted by The.Crimson.King The.Crimson.King wrote:

Voted Vonnegut...besides his other great works, Breakfast of Champions is a masterpiece.  Lovecraft is my all time favorite writer, 20th century or not.  His first story I read was At the Mountains of Madness and by the end of the first paragraph I knew I was home Wink

My band Mutiny in Jonestown (added to the PA database last year) has adapted many Lovecraft stories to music.  If anyone is curious, check out my latest album, "The Daemons Mock Me While I Sleep".  It sets Dagon, Polaris, The Colour Out of Space, Despair & Astrophobos to music and is available for listening (lyrics included) and free download at Bandcamp:

https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/album/the-daemons-mock-me-while-i-sleep

Are you familiar with the psychedelic band, HP Lovecraft?  Their eponymous first LP has a beautiful song, "The White Ship, on it...and the second (HP Lovecraft II), included a piece, "The Mountains of Madness."  Very psych stuff. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Dark Elf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 15:05
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Originally posted by Raff Raff wrote:


ThisClap. Smith is really something else. Most of the authors Lovecraft mentioned in his essay Supernatural Horror in LIterature are also highly recommended - even though many of them wrote mostly short stories. I  think JRR Tolkien also deserves a mention, no matter how overexposed his work may be. The Lord of the Rings will always be one of my favourite novels of all time, bar none.

Me, too.  Read the Tolkien's trilogy many, many times in my life.  Not all that is good is kept a secret.

I have a beautiful books of poetry of Smith's, Ebony and Crystal, signed by the author (not to me, sadly).  He was born and spent most of his life in Auburn, in Central CA, and I found it in an antique store there.
Agreed regarding Tolkien. Should definitely be on the list. I would venture to say that many millions more have read The Lord of the Rings than attempted Joyce's Ulysses or Finnegans Wake. That is no knock on stately, plump Buck Mulligan.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Dark Elf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 15:08
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Are you familiar with the psychedelic band, HP Lovecraft?  Their eponymous first LP has a beautiful song, "The White Ship, on it...and the second (HP Lovecraft II), included a piece, "The Mountains of Madness."  Very psych stuff. 

HP Lovecraft II is a lot of fun, particularly Electrallentando and Mobius Trip.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 15:21
Originally posted by The Dark Elf The Dark Elf wrote:

Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Are you familiar with the psychedelic band, HP Lovecraft?  Their eponymous first LP has a beautiful song, "The White Ship," on it...and the second (HP Lovecraft II), included a piece, "The Mountains of Madness."  Very psych stuff. 

HP Lovecraft II is a lot of fun, particularly Electrallentando and Mobius Trip.

Always up there in my obscure psych classics list


Edited by Snicolette - January 28 2019 at 15:21
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 16:22
I also love Joyce Carol Oates.  Prolific and many fantastic novels of several genres.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mascodagama Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 16:37
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Originally posted by Raff Raff wrote:


ThisClap. Smith is really something else. Most of the authors Lovecraft mentioned in his essay Supernatural Horror in LIterature are also highly recommended - even though many of them wrote mostly short stories. I  think JRR Tolkien also deserves a mention, no matter how overexposed his work may be. The Lord of the Rings will always be one of my favourite novels of all time, bar none.


Me, too.  Read the Tolkien's trilogy many, many times in my life.  Not all that is good is kept a secret.

I have a beautiful book of poetry of Smith's, Ebony and Crystal, signed by the author (not to me, sadly).  He was born and spent most of his life in Auburn, in Central CA, and I found it in an antique store there.

Very gratifying to find not one but two admirers of CAS on the forum! He was a much better writer than Lovecraft in almost every respect, I think - not least due to the existence of humour and sex in his work. Though his cynicism about the human race in general isn't for everyone.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 16:49
Originally posted by Mascodagama Mascodagama wrote:

 
Very gratifying to find not one but two admirers of CAS on the forum! He was a much better writer than Lovecraft in almost every respect, I think - not least due to the existence of humour and sex in his work. Though his cynicism about the human race in general isn't for everyone.

And then there were three....There are probably more that aren't talking. Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 17:05
Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Bukowski was very much de rigueur among male intellectuals for some time, probably because they wanted to prove they were not just some milk-faced intellectuals but REAL MEN. I never thought much of him though, maybe because I'm a woman, and would have replaced him with some other author.

I miss several authors, but of course only twenty-five can be chosen.

From Germany:

Heinrich Mann, the brother of Thomas: "Der Untertan" ("The Loyal Subject"), "Professor Unrat" ("The Blue Angel").

Heinrich Böll (a Nobel laureate nonetheless): “Ansichten eines Clowns” (“The Clown”), “Gruppenbild mit Dame” (“Group Portrait with Lady”), “Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum” (“The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum”), “Fürsorgliche Belagerung” (“The Safety Net”).

Rafik Shami (Syrian born but writing in German): “Eine Hand voller Sterne” (“A Hand Full of Stars”), “Die dunkle Seite der Liebe” (“The Dark Side of Love”).

Walter Moers: “Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher” (“The City of Dreaming Books”), “Die 13½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär" ("The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear").

From England.

Anthony Burgess: “A Clockwork Orange”, “The Kingdom of the Wicked”, “Earthly Powers”).

Peter Ackroyd: “The Great Fire of London”, Hawksmoor”).

Lawrence Norfolk: “Lempriere's Dictionary”, “The Pope's Rhinoceros”.

From Ireland:

Flann O'Brian: “At Swim-Two-Birds”, “The Third Policeman”.

From France:

Marcel Proust: À la recherche du temps perdu“ (“In Search of Lost Time”).

Jean-Paul Sartre: “La Nausée“ (“Nausea”).

Albert Camus: “L'Etranger” (“The Stranger”), “La Peste” (“The Plague”).

From Portugal:

José Saramago (another Nobel laureate): “Ensaio sobre a cegueira” (“Blindness”), “A Jangada de Pedra” (“The Stone Raft”).

From Colombia:

Gabriel Garcia Márquez: “Cien años de soledad” (“One Hundred Years of Solitude”), “El otoño del patriarca” (“The Autumn of the Patriarch”), “El amor en los tiempos del cólera” (“Love in the Time of Cholera”).

From Chile:

Isabel Allende: “La casa de los espíritus” (“The House of the Spirits”), “Eva Luna” (“Eva Luna”)

From Cuba:

Guillermo Cabrera Infante: “Tres Tristres Tigres” (“Three Trapped Tigers”).

From Poland:

Stanisław Lem: “Solaris” (“Solaris”), “Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie” (“Memoirs Found in a Bathtub”), “Eden” (“Eden”), “Kongres futurologiczny” (“The Futurulogical Congress”), “Wizja lokalna” (not translated into English yet but into German as “Lokaltermin”; the English title would be “Observation on the Spot”), “Pokój na Ziemi” (“Peace on Earth”), “Fiasko” (“Fiasco”).

From the USA:

John Barth: “The Sot-Weed Factor”.

Joseph Heller: “Catch-22”, “Something Happened”.

Thomas Pynchon: “V”, “Thy Crying of Lot 49”, “Gravity's Rainbow”, “Vineland”, “Mason & Dixon”.

Matt Ruff: “Fool on the Hill”, “Sewer, Gas and Electric”.

From Serbia:

Milorad Pavić: “Hazarski rečnik” (“Dictionary of the Khazars”), „Predeo slikan čajem“ (“Landscape Painted in Tea”).

From Japan:

Haruki Murakami: “羊をめぐる冒険 Hitsuji o meguru bōken” (“Wild Sheep Chase”),1Q84” (“1Q84”), “ダンス・ダンス・ダンス . Dansu, dansu, dansu” (“Dance, dance, dance”)

Kōbō Abe: “箱男 Hako otoko” (“The Box Man”), “燃えつきた地図 Moetsukita chizu” (“The Ruined Map”).

From India:

Arundhati Roy: “The God of Small Things”.

From New Zealand:

Keri Hulme: “The Bone People”.


From Italy: 
Italo Svevo - La coscienza di Zeno
Luigi Pirandello - Il fu Mattia Pascal, Uno Nessuno Centomila
Carlo Emilio Gadda - La cognizione del dolore, Quer pasticciaccio

Italo Calvino is very famous but now in Italy critics now consider these three the most important 20th century novelists.

The absolute masterpiece is La coscienza di Zeno.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 17:18
For what I know....

Among those on the list, 

Thomas Mann
James Joyce
Franz Kafka
Luis F Celine
Samule Beckett

(maybe R. Musil)

They are considered the greatest of the twentieth century by every european literary critic (with Proust and others).
American? Maybe William Faulkner but... nobody put Faulkner on the same level...
I don't say that it is right, I say what I know by reading a lot of European literary criticism.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jamesbaldwin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 28 2019 at 17:20
For me?

For me Kafka, but I've never read Beckett and Celine.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lewian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2019 at 06:14
Musil - Borges - Rushdie - Calvino - Mann. Of those nominated in the discussion but not listed, Arundhati Roy's The Good of Small Things is second to none.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2019 at 08:54
I've read work by the majority of these. Vonnegut, Kafka, Orwell, Borges, Burroughs, Beckett, Joyce, and Hesse rank amongst my favourites. And I'll give votes to Conrad (I did enjoy reading Heart of Darkness by him in college) and Faulkner too. As for Rushdie, I'm bigger on him as an individual and listening to him speak than as a writer, but then I've only read The Satanic Verses by him (well, not strictly true).

Some favourites not on the list include Aldous Huxley, Günter Grass, Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem.

Edited by Logan - January 29 2019 at 08:54
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lewian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 29 2019 at 10:04
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

As for Rushdie, I'm bigger on him as an individual and listening to him speak than as a writer, but then I've only read The Satanic Verses by him (well, not strictly true).
 

Midnight's Children is an utter masterpiece, surely among the top five books I've ever read.


Edited by Lewian - January 29 2019 at 10:05
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